Scene 2

Scene 2

Things weren’t going according to plan for Aaron as he stood in front of his father, who was sitting up on his made bed as he watched TV. He did see the look of concern he wanted on his father’s face when he told him Dalila had slapped him, but it didn’t grow into anger or outrage. Not that his father was ever one to jump to **** emotions. He wasn’t emotionless, but Aaron had hoped to see more when he told him that the bitch had attached him, just like he wished he had seen his father mourn more for his mother… or at least cry at the funeral. Aaron remembered his fathers firm and steady hand on his shoulder when he was eight, telling him how it was okay to cry and to let it out, and he had. Aaron had cried enough that he imagined the grass thought it was raining, he had cried so much that day and every night before he went to bed after. What he never saw was his dad crying and that made him feel weak, and made him angry.

“What did you do?” Gerald asked while meeting his son’s gaze while he hit the mute button on the TV. Dalila had been opening up the house, leaving almost all of the windows open to let in the cool air and talking about going to the store to get some autumn decorations. He was sure they had plenty, but the woman loved to shop and he rather spent a little to decorate the house than tell her no. That path led to spite shopping, either sitting next to him buying way too much online or worse calling his mother to see if she wanted to get together. His plan had been to enjoy the early afternoon by himself in peace watching a game that had been recorded, but it seemed like peace for him was out of the question.

“What do you mean?” Aaron reiterated while pointing to his cheek that just barely had a hint of pinkish red to it. “She hit me!”

Nodding Gerald swung his feet off the bed to move to a sitting position. He was dressed for the day with some socks, one of which had a small hole in them that his lovely wife insisted he throw away, a pair of jeans and a dark blue knit long sleeve shirt. “Son, I love you. My father may have said that twice in his life, so it is important that you know that. I love you, but I also know you. So, when I ask what you did to cause her to slap you. It is because I have no doubt you provoked her.”

Ignoring the confessions of love, Aaron felt outraged that his father was taking that woman’s side. Like he always did. “Just like that? Just like that you are taking her side!” He didn’t stomp his foot like a toddler, but Aaron’s face was growing red.

“Hey now. There is only one side, not yours, not your mothers, not either of your sisters and not mine. The only side is the family.” Gerald patted the top of the comforter he sat on next to him. “Come sit and tell me everything that happened.”

“She isn’t my mother, not that you remember who that is.” Aaron said with a growl in his voice. The concern on his father’s face changed to one of rage. It lasted for maybe the duration of one heartbeat, but Aaron had seen it and knew he had stepped over a line. What surprised him though was that his pops did raise his voice, didn’t lower it, but didn’t unleash the storm that he knew he had seen behind his fathers eyes. Instead his father just patted the bed next to him again.

“Son…” Gerald started when his child sat down next to him. “Aaron, your mother will always be in my heart, I am reminded of her and how the lord smiled upon me to have her in my life every time I look at you or your older sister. If you like we can look through an old scrapbook of pictures sometime that she put together. Despite what you might think Dalila doesn’t want me to forget about her. The scrap books your mother made are on the bookshelf in the living room that any one can look at anytime. If you want you can talk to Eve and we can plan a trip up to visit her grave together.” Putting a hand on the boy’s shoulder to try and be reassuring he pushed on. “I love your mother to this day, I would appreciate it if you would never suggest otherwise. Can you do that?”

The hand on Aaron’s shoulder felt like the weight of the world pressing down upon him. His father wasn’t a big man physically, but he always felt like he was when he spoke or touched him. Swallowing hard Aaron nodded. “That… that doesn’t change what she did, that she hit me.”

“No, none of that does, but they are different topics Aaron. Dalila is your mother, by both love and law. I don’t condone **** in this household…” Gerald thought back to what felt like a lifetime ago, he used to spank his children, both Evelyn and Aaron had gotten the belt, but he never did it to be cruel. His own father beat the hell out of him, it sure taught him a lesson or two, but he never thought a parent should go that far. Then Savannah had died long before her time in a car accident, and he just couldn’t bring himself to raise his hand to discipline his children anymore. Heavens knew how often Aaron deserved it. Grounding him just didn’t seem to make a lesson stick, but he saw Savannah anytime he even thought about raising his hand and just couldn’t bring himself to do it. “That said, I still do not know what happened and you don’t see Dalila rushing in here to tell me do you?”

“No…” Aaron said sullenly as he looked at the open bedroom door.

“That is because she knows we are talking, and when we are done I will talk with her and then we all will talk. Communication and discussion is how this household runs and I hope you take that lesson with you when you grow to be a man.”

Still feeling the weight of his father’s hand on his shoulder Aaron looked down to the floor, and told his father what happened, starting with how Dot repeatedly put her dolls next to his pillows or at the foot of his bed no matter how many times he told her to keep her things out of his room. Aaron told him how he even told the little brat, leaving out the word brat, that he was going to make them go away forever if she kept doing it, so he had warned her. Things really didn’t feel like they were going according to plan for the teen as he told the older man what happened, the hand never leaving his shoulder.

It wasn't long before Aaron was sitting in the living room with the family, and hadn’t made eye contact with anyone. His father hadn’t passed any sort of judgment and every passing minute his anxiety rose. Now though he wasn’t alone. Aaron could feel their eyes on him. He wasn’t sure why Eve was there, but his nosy sister always seemed to be about when there was drama.

Looking at his son as he stood in the middle of the living room Gerald felt the tightness of the muscles in his shoulders. He hated doing this, he hated the fact that his son had burned his daughter’s toys in some sort of plot to get both **** and attention. Gerald had been an only child and his mother never remarried after she got divorced so Gerald couldn’t say he knew what Aaron was going through. The parenting books he had read had a few things to say about middle children, but burning their sister’s dolls hadn’t been a chapter he had read, but it did feel like a cry for attention. Done very poorly, but he hoped working out time to visit the grave site and time to just spend together just the two of them would solve some of this. “Okay, we all know now what you did Aaron, and we have already talked about how that is wrong. Burning other people’s possessions is wrong and you already knew that.” Gerald said, giving his son a stern look before continuing. “What you don’t know is why Dorothy was leaving her toys in your room. Little one, you want to tell your brother why?”

Sitting on the couch the youngest of the Bright household kicked her feet a few times as they dangled off the couch, her feet almost touching the floor when she sat back. At seven she had been told she was slightly above average in height at her four foot seven and wasn’t fond of being called little. “Aarrron…” She said dragging out her brothers name. “You are mad a lot and don… don’t have a lot of friends and Mr. Bunny and and… Mr. Rabbit and Hippo always make me happy.” She squinted her eyes as she gripped the hem of her dress trying to fight off the water that threatened the arrival of tears. ‘I’m not a baby, I don’t need to cry.’ she told herself.

Aaron knew he was going to be grounded and wished they would just get on with it. He couldn’t help rolling his eyes as his little sister stumbled on her words. She was perfectly fine talking, that was till she spoke in front of more than two people and then it was always like she had to search for the words she wanted to say, making times like this just drag on. “I have plenty of friends.” he snapped, knowing the truth of it was that although he had a few people he could call friends, but they weren’t close. They didn’t hangout outside of school, but he had plenty of people he talked to online when he was playing video games. ‘I’m not some child that needs play dates.’

Dorothy sat back, pressing herself into the couch cushion seeing her mommy glare at her brother. “Sorry…” She pouted at her brother's rebuttal. Those tears started to well up, making her light blue eyes grow glassy, her vision blurry. What he said didn't feel true to her, but he also didn’t like to talk to her about much. He was always playing his video games in his room. From time to time he would play a racing game with her, saying it was so she wouldn’t bother him, but she saw him smiling and having fun. He could be mean to her, she didn’t know why other than he lost his mommy. Dorothy wished he wasn’t so mad. When he wasn’t mad he did nice things like the time he gave her his ice cream cone when hers had fallen, but today he’d made her really sad. “I thought Mr Rabbit, Mr. Bunny and Hippo could help you be happy again. They were my favorites.” She clenched her jaw, refusing to cry. ‘And now they're gone.’ Dorothy mentally added.

Squatting down next to her daughter Dalila ran her hand through the young girl's light blonde hair. “And why were they your favorites?” she asked gently.

The little frown on Dorothy’s face flipped up to a smile, it didn’t stay there, but still she smiled before sniffling. “Because, because Aaron gave me Mr. Bunny when I was five and didn’t feel good after I got my taaalus rememed.” The girl said, sticking her finger in her mouth as she tried to say tonsils removed. “Eve gave me….me Mr. Rabbit and, and, and, umm. Hippo Daddy gave me, said it was from your Mommy.”

Opening his mouth to speak, Aaron couldn’t think of anything to say. He felt like a complete heel as he thought about what he had done. Aaron hadn’t even remembered giving the stuffed toy to her till now, it meant little to him yet so much to her. It has been a silly little prize he’d won in class, there had been a ton of cheap little options the teacher had on a shelf for anyone that scored high enough on a test and he had chosen it because he didn’t want anything at all and at least Dot would like it… he just didn’t know how much she’d liked it till now. “I’m… I’m sorry Dot.” he said in a small voice.

Standing up, Dalila took the three steps over to her stepson. “Aaron I’m sorry too, I should not have done what I did. In the future I hope we can work things out like adults.” Dalila said the words and really did hope things could be better between them. The boy was bright, got good grades and didn’t get into any trouble at school, it was only at home he acted out. The problem was, she couldn’t get out of her head the memory of Dotty crying and burying her face in her pillow because her favorite things were gone, it made her want to slap the shit out of the teen boy.

Clearing his throat Gerald looked at his family, happy to clear the air, but wishing his heart didn’t feel like it did. ‘Why can’t they all just get along?’ he asked himself before turning his attention to his boy. “Apologies are important, but that doesn’t make what happened go away.” Punishing a kid that didn’t go out and hang out with friends was more difficult. Sure he could take away the game system in his room, but doing so also punished himself and took away a tool he was able to use to bond with his son. “I think the best punishment I can think of is one to help avoid any of this in the future. Aaron.” Gerald put some extra **** in his son’s name so that he would look up at him. “For the rest of the month when it is Dorothy’s bed time you are going to read her a bedtime story. You are also only allowed to play video games that she can play with you. Meaning you can only play when she is also playing…” He gave a hard look into his son’s eyes so that the boy knew not to play word games with the punishment. “Furthermore you are going to go out and buy some replacement toys for her. She gets to pick them out, and you get to pay for them out of your money.”

“Dad! I was saving for…” Aaron started to say before his father cut him off.

“No, what you were saving for was to get your little sister new toys. Finally, you will also be taking her trick or treating this year. I think that sounds more than fair, but what do you think Aaron? Is that not enough, just right or too much? You have to understand that while being eighteen makes you legally an adult, your emotions are still very much calling the shots on how you act. I think this will be good for you and in time I hope you will see that too.”

Swallowing hard Aaron nodded, he didn't want to spend his money or do any of that, but he also did feel bad about burning those toys. “It's enough.” he said with a nod.

Listening to everything happen Evelyn bit her tongue. She didn’t like what her little brother had done to Dotty, that made her angry. Burning the stuffed hippo that Mom used to keep on her bed was unforgivable. She could remember coming into her parents room and always seeing the hippo in different spots. It could be in the middle of the bed one day, under the sheets another, stuck between the pillows so only its nose was sticking out. It was now gone, he had just burned away a piece of their mother and she was going to get her ****, the punishment wasn’t enough, but she would make sure it would be.